Designing Presence

In prospect of the upcoming release of Oculus Rift and its several competitors, the design of virtual worlds has gained new importance to the field of interaction design. In his bachelor’s thesis “Designing Presence”, Denny defined basic design principles for virtual environments. In a series of five small experiments, he searched for strong physical sensations within the virtual world and the phenomena that are causing them. He then used his findings to design a cohesive, tangible installation with a swing as its centerpiece.

The virtual environment itself was realized in Unreal Engine 4. To detect the swinging motion of the user, an Arduino and a flex-sensor were applied to the swing, delivering data to a Processing sketch and finally into the engine. You can find a detailed making-of on the project website.